


Just Right Of An Evening

by HershelChocolate



Category: The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms, The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Im the author and i can write marius and lyf confessions as many times as i want to, Nonbinary Lyfrassir Edda, Other, Post-The Bifrost Incident, for those of you coming from my last fic this one is not related to stowaway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27695956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HershelChocolate/pseuds/HershelChocolate
Summary: Marius regretted leaving Lyf back on Midgard, and eventually managed to convince at least half the crew to let him go back. But at that point it was too late. The Ygdrassil System was unreachable from their previously registered coordinates, and there was no trace of the Inspector that Marius had grown so fond of.But that wasn't going to stop him from searching.
Relationships: Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum
Comments: 10
Kudos: 72





	1. Cause and Effect

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for checking out my fic! This one is a bit more lighthearted than what I usually go for but I had a lot of fun with it and I hope you do too!

Inspector Second Class Lyfrassir Edda was currently curled up in a corner of their office. They had woken up that morning with their long silver hair a frizzy mess and their uniform’s purple coat mysteriously missing from its spot where they had haphazardly tossed it aside the night before. Twenty minutes and one broken comb later, they had to bribe their coat away from their cat and ended up being an hour late to work after their usual mode of transportation refused to start. After such a restless and confusing morning, they were looking forward to a calm day of organizing paperwork and generally staying out of everyone's way.

The second they stepped into the building a dozen people at once asked if they had heard about the train.

The Ratatosk Express. Disappeared 80 years previous and had just now arrived at its final destination: Midgard. Luckily it wasn't too far away from where Lyf worked, so commuting there wasn't an issue. There wasn't much left of the thing but wouldn't you know it, the Black Box was entirely intact and very conveniently placed right near the front of the train.

Lyf chalked it up as a useful coincidence and immediately forgot all about it.

They highly doubted they'd be able to easily forget everything else that happened in the days to follow.

Finding out your entire star system was doomed to an inevitable fate of being sucked into an endlessly shifting rainbow hell was probably not what Lyf was expecting when they woke up that morning. The three prisoners they usually used for intel had gotten very nervous when they brought up the train, and sure enough they were gone by the time Lyf had finished watching the recordings. For some reason they felt a pang of betrayal when they realized they weren't coming back. But to feel betrayed you'd have to trust someone, and as a reputable Inspector (Second Class), there's no way they would ever admit to trusting them. Even if they did already miss them. 

So instead of doing what any normal person would and deciding to get the hell out of that star system, Lyf instead chose to curl up in a ball in the corner of their office. The Black Box was kicked to the side, trying so hard to be forgotten. The echoes of that horrid chant still rang through their mind as they tried to wrap their head around whatever was going to happen to them. They had every means to escape, but all the energy they had seemed to have left them the second the recordings stopped.

And as the screams started to be heard outside and the noise of static and chaos started to rise, Lyf regrettably realized their last thought would be wondering what happened to those three prisoners. 

The walls of the station began to fall apart, and as the shifting rainbow tendrils reached out to pull them in, Lyf closed their eyes and accepted it. 

They expected it to be more painful, really. Watching everyone on the Ratatosk Express turn to squamous things from the spaces between realities looked extremely uncomfortable. But it was exactly those images flashing through their mind that made their presence in the entity that is the Bifrost that much more...familiar.

And if anything that was the scariest part of all.

Marius sat facing a large window, pouting. Sure, being immortal really fucks up your internal clock, but sixty years was a long time to get accustomed to being a prisoner. It wasn't that bad, really. Especially when that nosy Inspector that always dragged you away for questioning was so cute.

He'd wanted to go back for them, he really did. But by the time they came around with the Black Box in their hands, all three of the previous prisoners knew what it meant. There just wasn't enough time. The only thing left to do was hope they had the common sense to take a ship and bail.

Marius sighed, not noticing the other figure in the room.

"Don't tell me you're pouting over that detective guy again."

Marius looked up to see Ashes O'Reilly on a seat further in the room. He turned back to face the window, his reflection overlayed above dozens of shining stars.

"I should be allowed to pout a little bit if I want to. It's only fair."

"You were only there for sixty years. We all left Brian in a sun for a century and you don't see him complaining."

Marius grinned. "That was pretty funny. But he didn't have any cute Inspectors he left behind."

Ashes shrugged. "If you're that worried about it just ask to go back. Or steal the reins and make us go back yourself. Don't just sit here moping about it or I'll have to shoot you to get you to stop."

Marius considered his options. He very much enjoyed moping. It made him feel dramatic. But going back to check for them seemed like it would be fun too. He definitely wouldn't have to try that hard to convince Raphaella or Ivy that it was a good idea if either of them questioned him. The three of them had been together on Midgard for so long and yet the two nerds never got to see the train up close. He was sure they'd want to study it or take notes on it or perform tests on it or something. Anything. Even if he did end up having to steer the ship himself, at least he'd have backup. 

He stood up quickly, his mind racing. Maybe it wasn't too late to head back to Yggdrasil. Maybe it was too late for the star system but not too late to catch Lyf on the way out. There was no way they would have stayed after finding out what was about to happen. Absolutely not. 

Marius rushed out of the room, leaving Ashes to smile to themself. 

"Hope Jonny doesn't blame me if they end up being cute together."

Brian sat at the controls for the Aurora, humming a little tune as he made sure everything was in tip-top shape. Sure, as a sentient spaceship Aurora could pilot herself just as well. But it gave him something to do.

Oh. He should have thought ship-shape. Then it would've been funny. He'd have to share that little joke with Nastya sometime when she wasn't busy tinkering with something or other.

As Brian contemplated the best time to share his puns with the world, Marius kicked open the door to the bridge, earning a surprised shriek from the Drumbot. Marius was at his side in a second, a familiar gleam in his eyes that meant either Brian should do what he's told or Marius will shoot him and do it himself. Brian didn't particularly feel like being shot today. 

"We need to go back to Yggdrasil."

On second thought maybe getting shot wasn't so bad.

"Can I ask why?"

"Because!" Marius grabbed his shoulders, his eyes shining. "We need to go back for Lyf!"

Brian blinked. "Isn't that the detective that held you captive for sixty years?"

Marius waved his hands. "Oh that's water under the bridge now. Come on, I know you know how to get there! No one has to know that's where we're going!"

Brian sighed and turned back towards the controls. He could feel Marius bouncing on his toes in excitement behind him, but he tried to tune it out.

He checked the logs of the ship to find the coordinates Marius needed but...Wait, hang on a second. That wasn't right. Maybe he'd typed the date wrong? But no, that wasn't working either. 

The longer Brian took to find anything, the less excited Marius' bouncing got. Eventually it turned to foot tapping, which turned to looking for the closest gun.

"It's not here."

Marius stopped. "Come again?"

"It's not here. The logs, the coordinates...it's like our data has been wiped." Brian turned to face Marius, his brows furrowed. "It's just gone. I can't take us back."

The two stared at each other in silence, the hum of the engines filling the space.

Marius took one step towards the door, keeping his eyes on the pilot. "I'm telling on you."

"Wait-"

"Oh it's too late now!" Marius continued walking slowly towards the door, throwing his arms wide to gesture at the room around them. "I'm gonna tell Nastya all about how you lost all of our logs for every single time any one of us went to an incredibly large and hard to misplace star system in the past sixty years. She's going to be so glad to hear it."

Brian stood. "I-I can explain!"

Marius paused. He raised an eyebrow.

"...Okay. I don't have an explanation. I didn't think you would stop walking."

Marius pouted, turning and running down the halls towards engineering. 

Brian couldn't even begin to imagine what was worse. The fact that Marius or Nastya were just as likely to kill him for misplacing the logs, or the fact that it meant he'd have to wait another 24 hours to tell Nastya his joke.

Marius had gathered Nastya, Ivy, Raphaella, and Brian together on the bridge. While Nastya and Ivy were there to help Brian figure out what happened with the logs, Raphaella was there specifically as moral support. With the prison trio together in one room, any complaints Nastya and Brian could have would be quickly outvoted. 

"What do you think it's like out there? The Bifrost must have taken over that entire sector at this point. Maybe even spreading farther into space! Maybe it'll find us before we can find it!"

For someone talking about the potential annihilation of the universe, Raphaella's eyes sparkled as she clapped her hands. Marius just stared at her.

"Okay but we'll find Lyf after, right?"

Raphaella paused. "Oh yeah. I mean, they're mortal right? They're probably already dead, I wouldn't worry about it."

Marius opened his mouth to protest, but a shout from the main console got his attention.

"Hey, Marius." Nastya waved him over. "We've got something here."

He was at her side in a second, shoving Brian away despite his loud protesting. "What? What did you find? Is it Lyf?"

"Would you stop that for one second? No, we didn't find Lyf. But whatever erased our files missed a spot." She tapped on a thread of data, expanding it to fill the screen. "The link to one of the comms stations near Midgard."

"Ooh!" Marius reached past Nastya, who frowned at him, and punched a button. "Hellooo Midgard come in Midgard hello hello! Anyone there?"

The only response was static. Marius pouted, hitting the button again. 

"You guys good? Got your whole Bifrost thing figured out? Any rogue Inspectors out there that wanna say hi?"

The static wavered, but never cleared. Marius was just about to try a third time when Ivy grabbed his hand.

"I'm as much a fan of experimentation as anyone out there but there's already a 99% chance the entirety of the Yggdrasil star system has already been destroyed, and at this point a 76% chance that Lyfrassir Edda was a part of it." Ivy pulled her hand back, trying to be gentle. "I'm sorry Marius. There isn't much more we can do."

Marius just looked sadly at the console, wishing it would make a noise that wasn't static. Maybe it was for the best, he was just going to outlive Lyf anyway. Unless he let Raphaella do unethical science experiments on them.

He briefly glanced back at her. She gave him a big grin and a thumbs up. Alright, maybe not.

Sighing, he walked to the large window at the front of the bridge. Pulling out a violin from nowhere, Marius played a single somber note.

Brian glanced over at him. "What was that about?"

Marius spun to face the group, trying to hide a smile. "It was an F."

No one tried to stop Nastya from pulling out the small gun by her hip and shooting Marius. His eyes briefly widened before he relaxed into a smile.

"Worth it."

He collapsed to the floor, no one making any effort at all to go help him. The four remaining crew members glanced at each other. Nastya put her gun away and shrugged.

"Half of the people on this ship would have done the same."

"Yeah but. The poor guy is just trying his best out here." Raphaella spread her wings, standing a bit straighter. "I'm going to help him."

Nastya rolled her eyes. "You just want something else to experiment with."

"Aw come on! It's been so long since I've had something fun! So what if I find Lyf's floating corpse or something, I never got to get my hands on anything from the Bifrost!" Raphaella stamped her foot, glaring at Nastya. "It's only fair! I was in jail!"

"For doing crimes." Ivy piped up from the back. "We did many, many crimes. It wasn't against you being a scientist. I'm pretty sure you killed a man at some point."

"Oh well that's alright I guess. But still!"

Nastya sighed, rubbing at her forehead. "Alright, alright. We'll help you. I don't want you poking around the Aurora's systems without my guidance anyway."

Brian raised his hand. Nastya nodded at him.

"Should someone take care of Marius?"

They all turned to glance at his body near the window. He'd landed on top of his violin. 

"Eh. We'll deal with that later."

A month later Marius was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. They were no closer to finding the remains of Yggdrasil, and he was starting to get a little nervous that they never would. Everyone else had very obviously given up after week one, but they didn't really have that much else to do besides practicing for their next gig, and Jonny usually tried to avoid anything tech related after what happened the last time Tim snuck into the engine room. So at least it was a break from him.

As Marius stared up at the ceiling, his thoughts once again drifted to Lyf as they so often did these days. He wondered what they were doing. Maybe they were out being a cool space pirate themself and having fun adventures on their own little spaceship. Maybe they were a space detective solving space crimes, and maybe that meant that Lyf would be able to find him if he kept committing space crimes. Maybe they were looking for him and they'd meet in the middle and save themselves the trip.

Or maybe Ivy was right and they hadn't been able to escape in time.

Marius glared to himself and shook his head. No, of course not! Lyf was a smart person. It's why they were an Inspector. They definitely would have been able to see the obvious danger they were in and left the system in time to escape. Sure they'd have their fair share of trauma but they all did at this point. Ivy didn't know what she was talking about. She could be wrong sometimes.

There was a first time for everything.

Just as he was about to stop the existential spiraling and actually go to sleep, Marius jumped at the sudden sound of static. 

It took him a second to realize what it was. He'd been gifted an old radio from Tim one time, and while the thing hardly ever picked up a signal, it was still a neat little thing to keep around. Somehow it had switched itself on and was blasting white noise through the room.

Marius just reached over and switched it off before once again trying to go to sleep. 

The next day, though, at roughly the same time, the radio once again came to life. And it once again only broadcasted that same static. And Marius once again immediately shut it off and went to sleep.

The third time it happened was in the middle of the night. Marius was woken up by it and was not very happy about it at all. He couldn't be bothered to shut it off, though. Instead he just lie there for a few minutes, trying to either ignore it or get up the energy to roll over to turn it off. 

As he stared into the dark of his room considering his options, Marius slowly became aware of a shift in the noise. It was just normal radio static before, but now the pitch was ever so slightly changing. In minuscule moments of clarity, it almost sounded like it had picked up a signal and a voice was coming through. 

Curious, Marius let it play for just a minute longer, waiting to see what kind of station it picked up. Not a single word came through clear enough for him to understand it, but as the bits and pieces filtered in, a small feeling of dread began to creep in. He knew this voice. He just couldn't place where.

_"Insp………...cl……...ir…….ing………….ck……"_

And then suddenly it hit him.

That was Lyf's voice.

The second Marius came to that realization, a loud burst of static covered the feed and the radio fell silent.


	2. But If You Tune Your Radio...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marius proves himself to be more of a nuisance than previously anticipated

Marius stood in the back of the bridge, playing various upbeat and slightly repetitive songs. No one had told him to shut up yet, so until further notice that was what he planned to do. Occasionally he glanced over at the group he had begun to call Mission Control. Nastya, Brian, Ivy, and Raphaella. Nastya and Brian worked at the various consoles, while Raphaella and Ivy did as much research as they could on the Yggdrasil star system. They hadn't given up on finding it yet, mostly because of Marius.

Brian had figured out what went wrong about a week ago. It wasn't their logs or the console that stored them that was faulty. Something had wormed its way into their systems and deleted any trace of Yggdrasil's existence. Which made Raphaella and Ivy's search just a little more difficult. 

When Brian first brought it up, Raphaella excitedly mentioned that maybe it was the Bifrost itself that had deleted any chance of anyone finding it. Nastya had quickly waved that line of questioning away, but the longer they searched the more Raphaella's wild theories seemed to be possible. 

"Would you stop that? I'm trying to focus."

Marius paused his violin playing long enough to look Nastya in the eye before starting up a new song. She sighed and turned back to the console.

"Anything yet?" Raphaella looked up from a book she had snagged from Midgard. It was a science fiction novel, but she insisted any information was good information.

Nastya just looked frustrated. "Nothing. And whenever I try to create a log or any mention of Yggradsil, everything stops. It's no different than it was two weeks ago. Frankly, I am very tired of trying the same things over and over again."

"Then just try something different." Raphaella shrugged. "Problem solved."

"It's not that easy. And in any case, anything I try would be so much more effective if _someone_ wasn't playing Favoured Son on loop for three hours."

Marius grinned. A shot hit the wall next to him, and after a moment's consideration he decided to take that as his cue to go. Hopefully Nastya would be able to get more done, but in the meantime he could always bother someone else. 

He ended up in the common room, surrounded by large windows and also suspiciously empty. Marius approached one of the windows in the back of the room, watching as the Aurora slowly drifted through space. Tiny pieces of asteroids floated by at just the right angle for Marius to be able to play a sad song and pretend it was rain, and he was on a sad music video. He stared off into space, his mind wandering with many thoughts at once, almost all of them centered around Lyf.

It only took a few minutes for Tim to pop his head into the room. "Hey, would you knock that off? I'm trying to teach an Octokitten to shoot a gun and you're ruining the mood."

Marius almost considered arguing with him, and then decided seeing Jonny get shot by an Octokitten would be better. He gave Tim a thumbs up and headed back to his room.

Several hours later in the dead of night, Marius lay still, wide awake and with static playing on his radio. After he heard Lyf's voice, it didn't come back. He wanted to think it was because Lyf was on a ship and long gone from where the Mechs were drifting in the vague direction of Yggdrasil. The longer it took to find them, the harder it was to think of reasons why they hadn't run into Lyf yet. 

Marius let the radio play every night now. Sometimes it would stay on for just a few minutes, sometimes the entire rest of the night. He was getting an absolutely horrendous amount of sleep. But if he could hear that voice just one more time…

As if on cue, the white noise coming from the radio picked up in pitch. Marius shot up, instantly reaching over to pick up the small device. He'd never even really paid attention to the thing before now. He regretted not fixing it up to play better quality audio.

He put his ear to the speaker, straining to hear anything in the now wavering frequency. Eventually, something started to come through.

It sounded kind of like…

His name?

Someone, somewhere, was broadcasting something extremely weak that was comprised entirely of… mumbling his name? He leaned back, trying to puzzle his way through it on two hours of sleep at four in the morning. Not his best timing, but neither was the radio's. 

_"...Marius?"_

His eyes widened. That was the first time it had come through clearly. Almost on instinct, he replied.

"Yeah?"

A sharp noise cut through the static, and then the feed was gone. It almost sounded like the radio shrieked in a panic, and the idea of that made Marius smile. It was a wonderful mental image to have when you were sleep deprived. He could get some googly eyes and stick them on his radio for the full effect.

...Wait, what? No, this was weird. This was really weird. Why was there a radio frequency that knew his name? And why did it stop when he talked to it? He still couldn't get the thought out of his head that the voice sounded like Lyf, was this their way of trying to find him? Were they looking too? And if they were, why did they cut it off after he replied? Were they not expecting him to? 

Marius sat in the dark staring at the silent radio in his hands as his mind flooded with questions. He paused to yawn, and realized maybe now wasn't the best time to theorize. He put the radio back and turned to go to sleep, deciding to just ask Nastya about it in the morning. She knew tech stuff, she could probably figure it out.

A very long distance away, the scattered pieces of the entity that used to be Lyfrassir Edda held a shimmering rainbow hand over their mouth in shock. It felt like an eternity since they had any faint memories of a normal life on Midgard, but the static that clung to the Black Box recordings was not a sound they would soon forget. Wherever they were, whatever was left of them, was constantly tormented by the sound of that dreadful static. It played everywhere, no matter how much they tried to escape it. There was nowhere to go here. Nothing else to do. Nothing except become increasingly aware of how scattered your thoughts are. How scattered you started to feel. How scattered you were becoming. 

And so they spoke to it. 

Quietly at first. Their name. Their cat's name. Where they lived. What their job was. The names on the office doors next to theirs. 

The names of a few memorable prisoners. 

For some reason they became fixated on repeating the name of a certain violinist. Something told them that maybe if they just kept calling out to someone, they might be able to hear.

They just weren't expecting it to actually go through.

They could feel the Bifrost cut off any semblance of a connection they made the second they realized they had made it. But this time was different. They tried to be more aware, keep their thoughts less scattered and more focused on blocking out the Bifrost. 

And then, after all this time, they finally heard his voice.

And then, of course, they panicked.

The presence of the Bifrost weighed on their mind. Connecting to anything outside of their little bubble took more effort than they were willing to use most of the time. But maybe, if it meant they could hear his voice again…

Maybe they wouldn't mind.

Nastya had started banning Marius from entering the bridge. At first he just ignored the signs, but after a few days of waking up halfway across the ship several hours later with a fresh bullet hole in his shirt, he decided against it. He dragged them all into this mess, the least he could do was make sure they had the time and space to actually find something.

He'd been trying to fix up his radio in the meantime. Tim had originally gifted it to him, but it was half a joke. When Marius asked about it Tim just laughed and offered to shoot it to see if that would help. Marius started keeping his radio very far away from Tim.

Fiddling with it at all came with the risk that it would stop broadcasting that strange signal. But if it meant being able to understand it better, that was a risk he was willing to take. With Ivy spending most of her time on the bridge, it wasn't difficult to snag a few books from her room. Every night after that, Marius tested out his tweaks with that night's static. 

After the shriek of embarrassed horror that cut off their last conversation, it didn't come as a surprise that it took a few days for it to start up again. And when it did, Marius was ready.

_"...Hello?"_

Marius lay on his stomach, smiling at the face of the radio. "It's so late, you really shouldn't be calling at a time like this. So unprofessional for an Inspector."

The radio gave a squeak of surprise, but remained connected. Marius' grin grew wider. His tweaks were working.

_"I… I'm sorry?"_

"Aw, don't be, it's chill. So-" Marius began kicking his legs back and forth. "Whatcha thinking about?"

The radio hesitated for a few seconds. When it spoke again, the noise was muffled, and Marius poked around to see if he was losing the connection as he listened.

_"I don't know. It's… it's hard to think. It's so loud here."_

"Then leave!" Marius shrugged. "I mean, you don't have to stay if you don't want to. Right?"

Silence. He started to get a bit worried that he lost contact by the time it spoke again.

_"Marius?"_

"Yeah? What's up?"

_"Marius. I'm in the Bifrost."_

Huh.

Well, fuck.

"Now why would you go and do a stupid thing like that?" Marius frowned at the radio as he picked it up, almost hoping Lyf could feel how disappointed he was better that way. "You saw the Black Box didn't you?"

Distortion.

"Didn't you?"

Interference.

"Lyf?"

Static.

"Lyfrassir?"

_"I miss you."_

No hesitation. "I miss you too."

And then the feed cut out.

"Come on, just for a little bit?"

"No."

"For five minutes?"

"No."

Marius leaned against the door to the bridge. He was pouting again, and holding his radio close to his chest. Nastya's voice was muffled through the door, but her frustration was clear enough.

"Come on, I know a way to actually help this time I promise! Just for a little bit!"

"Marius, it's the middle of the night."

"Then you shouldn't be up either! We're both criminals!"

Marius could hear her sigh, and a few seconds later the door slid open. Nastya looked tired. They all did, really. While Brian and Ivy were doing their own thing, Marius also spotted Raphaella passed out on a seat in the back. 

"This better be good."

Marius grinned and winked, pushing past her and slamming his radio down on the closest open spot. Brian briefly glanced up and immediately looked exhausted. 

"Please. Please don't play your music again. We have to focus-"

Marius, of course, promptly ignored him and switched the radio on. He checked the time… Perfect. This was exactly when Lyf usually tried connecting. Maybe they'd be able to ask them directly for information?

Everyone stared at Marius as the radio played nothing but static. He stood proudly, waiting patiently for when they would decide to show up.

A minute passed.

"Is this how you're planning on helping?" Nastya approached, poking the side of the radio. "With a broken antique?"

"Hey! It's doing its best! Just. Give it a minute." Marius gave the top of the radio an affectionate pat. "Maybe it's just nervous."

Nastya rolled her eyes and got back to work. After a few more minutes of static, Ivy closed her book, stood up, and left. Marius watched her go, finally starting to get just the tiniest bit worried.

"I hope she's just going to bed. It's pretty late."

"Maybe you should go too." Nastya gave him a pointed look. 

Marius grabbed his radio and slowly started walking out of the room, occasionally looking back like a sad puppy. Nastya had no remorse as she shut the door behind him. He began the long walk back to his room, when Jonny walked past.

"What's with the radio? This song sucks why don't you change it."

Marius smacked his hand away from the dial. Jonny smacked his hand back. The two eyed each other just long enough to decide neither wanted to get into a fight in the hall. They each went their separate ways, suspiciously glaring at the other until they were out of sight.

Occasionally while working on decoding the location of the long-since-destroyed Yggdrasil system, Nastya decided she would need something from another room. Usually this was just a brief inconvenience as she had to get up and grab it. Sometimes she sent Brian to do it instead when he was feeling helpful.

Lately those trips had become nightmarish. 

All the time, every day. Marius sits by the door to the bridge, waits for someone to come out, and follows them around. The entire time that damned radio of his plays nothing but white noise and static. He seemed keen on making sure whatever use the thing would have was a surprise, but after three days it was driving everyone up the wall. 

Nastya overheard Raphaella wishing he would just go back to playing his violin. That's when she knew it had to stop.

One day during a lull in the work, she decided to finally put a stop to it. She got up from her usual spot, pretending she had to get something from her room. As usual Marius perked up the second the door opened and obediently followed her as she wandered halfway across the ship before turning around to face him.

"If you don't tell me right now why that thing is so important to you, I'm throwing it out of the airlock here and now."

Marius shouted in shock and anger, but he was drowned out by the sound of a sudden increase in static. His eyes widened as he looked down at the radio, tugging on Nastya's sleeve and frantically pointing at the thing as the signal began to clear.

_"Marius?"_

Nastya just stared as Marius let out a cheer.

"It's been so long! I was starting to get worried!"

_"I-I'm sorry… I got… well, I got embarrassed and I think it's starting to catch on-"_

"I'm sorry," Nastya gestured vaguely in Marius' direction. "But does someone want to explain what's going on?"

"Oh!" Marius smacked himself on the forehead and then immediately regretted it when he realized which hand he had used to do that with. After a moment of rubbing his head with his non-metal hand, Marius grinned and bowed slightly, holding the radio in front of him.

"How rude of me to forget to introduce my fellow acquaintance et cetera et cetera. This is why I thought it'd help! It's Lyf! See, say hi!"

As Marius proudly displayed the radio, they both stared at it as it fell silent. Marius tried giving it a little shake. 

"Lyf? You still there?"

_"Oh,"_ The signal was starting to fade already. _"I didn't know there was anyone else there."_

"My name is Nastya Rasputina. I live with Marius on the starship Aurora and I have been tasked with helping find the whereabouts of your old system." Nastya folded her arms. "You're still there, if I'm assuming correctly? Any information you could provide would speed up our search immensely. Heaven knows Marius hasn't been much help."

Marius liked to think the noise that came from the radio was disagreement and not laughter.

_"I'm sorry. I don't know where I am… I don't know who I am half the time either...I don't think I can help you."_

Nastya glanced up at Marius. "Is it alright if we bring them to the bridge? We might be able to catch their signal."

"Ooh! Good idea! Just hang in there Lyf, we're coming for you!"

The sound coming from the radio immediately began to waver as the two hurried back to the bridge.

_"Don't let it know that! It's getting harder… I don't think it wants me to leave."_

"We've almost got you, you can't go now! Just hold on!"

Nastya took a brief moment to enjoy the looks of shocked horror on the other's faces as she threw the doors open and let Marius inside. He dropped the device on the console Nastya had been working on and she quickly set to work. Marius talked to Lyf, anything that came to mind to give them something to latch on to.

Ivy looked like she wanted to strangle him for distracting her from her book, but Raphaella was watching the radio. Brian, on the other hand, had completely given up on getting any work done the second Marius entered the room and was now tuning his banjo.

Nastya ignored all of this as she quickly typed away, connecting the terminal to the radio and tracing it back as far as she could. The moments Lyf spoke up managed to speed up the process, but she wouldn't dare ask them to do so more often. Not after the long stretches of silence in the hall when she first made herself known.

Marius was still rambling, talking about fixing the radio, telling stories of things he did while in jail in Midgard, a list of all the times he'd gotten kicked out of the bridge. A minute later he was interrupted in the middle of a story by a chime from the console.

Nastya sat up straighter. "I found it."

The radio went dead.

"Lyf?" Marius poked around, but any combination of dials, switches, and buttons did nothing. He glanced up at Nastya, who had the same look of concern in her eyes.

"Brian?"

Brian sat up quickly, wincing at the harsh sounds his banjo made at the sudden movement.

"Yes?"

"Set a course. We're going to Yggdrasil."

Raphaella cheered, pulling Ivy into a spinning hug. But Marius couldn't celebrate. Not until he had gotten Lyf out of the Bifrost. 

He kept the radio on every night for the two weeks it took them to get there.

It was always silent.


End file.
